Grey Areas
by daywalker03
Summary: Jack Darby discovers the true motivations of Megatron's destruction of the Predacons in Evolution; the explanations and additional revelations are harder to accept. Should be read in sequence with Foxbear's story Consequences Chapter 2. Initial chapter has only Canon characters; later chapters will include OC's
1. Grey Areas

Grey Areas Part One

A Transformers Prime Fan Fiction

Set between Evolution and Minus One

Jack and Optimus stood far apart in the temporary base they had been using since Jasper had been evacuated, but neither of them could miss the tension rolling off of Wheeljack since the Wreckers had returned from the cave. Jack had attempted to approach him several times, only to be rebuffed each time. Miko had spoken with him, and was still with him as far as Jack could tell. Jack looked over at Optimus where he and Ratchet were working to repair Ultra Magnus' hand; it wasn't going well, but there wasn't anything that Jack could do about that.

Daybreaker, have you been able to talk to Wheeljack yet? The gentle thought drifted through his head through the guardianship bond between him and Optimus, and Jack smiled a bit. He is doing his best not to talk to anyone, but I believe Miko is with him right now, Jack responded silently. I believe he feels he's betrayed the Autobot cause, but there is something disturbing about the entire thing. Jack felt more than saw Optimus turn toward him, which lead to annoyed grumblings in Cybertronian from Ratchet. Jack smiled and thought back to Optimus, tell Ratchet to watch his language; I may not be able to speak it, but I do understand more than he may realize. Optimus translated what Jack had said silently, and all he heard from Ratchet was "Scrap".

Jack walked over to where he knew Wheeljack was and sat down against the wall, much like the mech was himself; he saw Miko leaning against the mech and wondered what they had been talking about, though he suspected he knew the answer. If he was right, Wheeljack was going through the sort of stress that accompanied doing something morally wrong, but didn't see the whole picture; Jack was starting to see that picture, and the longer he thought about it, the clearer the answer was. "It was a set-up," Jack said. Miko and Wheeljack looked over at him, and Wheeljack responded, "a set-up? What does that mean?"

Jack closed his eyes and responded, "it means that Megatron knew we would respond to the bait of the unprocessed Energon and find the laboratory while exploring. He manipulated you into blowing up the laboratory by having Shockwave there, and he manipulated Predaking into attacking you by sending him to the laboratory at the time you were trying to leave." He sighed and looked over at Miko. "It's like Megatron knows how to hurt us the most without lifting a finger himself; he uses our sense of morality as a weapon against us, knowing that we will do exactly this sort of self-recrimination when things like this happen," he finished sadly.

Wheeljack looked at the humans closely; Miko was clearly trying to understand what Jack was saying and not really succeeding and Jack was listening to something that neither he nor Miko could hear. "Jack, I think I understand what you're getting at, but you've lost Miko in the process. Are you implying that Megatron planned this entire scenario, including Predaking's involvement in it, based on his understanding of the moral standards of Cybertronians and Humans? If so, I apologize for my tempermental response to your earlier attempts to talk to me about this," Wheeljack said, smiling at Miko.

Jack looked up at Wheeljack and smiled, "yes, that sums it up nicely. Now, why do you think he wanted the Predacons destroyed when they would be some of the fiercest fighters in his arsenal? Especially after all the effort they went through to find the bones in the first place. If we can figure that out, maybe we will have a clue as to what he plans to do next."

Miko looked over at Jack and said, "maybe they realized they couldn't control that many, especially after seeing Predaking transform?" She shivered slightly at the thought of the dragon having a robot form, even though it made sense.


	2. Dark Tidings

Grey Areas Part Two

A Transformers Prime Fan Fiction

By daywalker03

Dark Tidings

(Author's note: any spoken words surrounded by is link communications for the members of The Twenty Seven that are involved in this story. Any spoken words with are spoken Cybertronian. Any spoken words with asterisks around them are translated from Russian.)

Three figures walked at a brisk pace along the row of hangers at an unidentified military base somewhere in the United States. As they passed each hanger, the soldiers that were stationed at each would snap to attention and salute the lead figure, relaxing only after she spoke to them. Finally, she and her two companions stood in front of a large hanger emblazoned with the letter "E". No guards were visible in front of this hanger, which puzzled her companions; Lieutenant-Commander, shouldn't there be guards here as well? Buster said softly through the link he shared with his companions. Buster, if my information is correct, this hanger is well guarded without a need for humans risking their lives any more than necessary. Lieutenant-Commander Michelle Parker-Rodenko responded as she walked up to the man-door build into the main hanger door; Buster and Grunt watched as a young human male opened the door and said, "welcome to our humble home, Lieutenant-Commander." "Hello Raf, it's nice to see you again; I just wish the circumstances were different," she said, then turned to her companions. "We don't have all afternoon; something big is going on and Prime wants our input on what's happening, and I really don't want to keep him waiting."

Buster and Grunt followed her inside, with Raf leading them to a nearby staircase, which lead up to a catwalk that was at shoulder level for the main occupants of the hanger; Buster, Grunt and Michelle stared at the figure standing beside Ratchet at the communications console, then Michelle spoke. "Sir, you're looking – robust. But I still sense the kind spark that took in a furious human back on Cybertron under that mesh." Optimus turned to the trio on the catwalk and smiled, "A lot has changed, including my appearance, but the one constant in our war is Megatron." What did he do this time, Sir? Buster asked while looking at the young humans that had gathered on the catwalk beside them. "In English, please," Jack asked quietly; "not all of us understand Cybertronian." "Jackson is right, of course; please introduce yourselves, as the children haven't met several of you before, " Optimus said gently. Buster shuttered his optics and slowly spoke in English, "forgive me, young ones; I generally do not speak human languages around my commanding officer, so I did not think about it. My name is Buster, and my companion is Grunt." Grunt bowed politely and spoke, "what are your names? It seems that our commanding officer has met you all before, but we don't have the data available to us."

Jack smiled at Buster and Grunt, then said, "My name is Jack. My companions are Raf and Miko, and we've been friends of the Autobots for a little over two years now. It's nice to be able to meet some new Autobots, even if they are smaller than expected," Jack finished with a slight grin. Michelle smiled and patted Jack on the shoulder. "Buster and Grunt are two of the more important members of the team I lead, but you're a real asset to this team, or so I have heard, Jackson. Or should I say, Daybreaker." Jack looked at Michelle in surprise and said, "How did you know that?" Michelle smiled, then stepped back away from the teens. "I think you're ready to see something that not many people know about me," she said, then she transformed into a slender Cybertronian version of herself. Jack blinked and looked up as she knelt next to the teens. "Whoa," Jack said admiring her form; Miko and Raf were just as impressed, but neither could find the words to say so. "In this form, I usually respond to Osprey, though Optimus often calls me that anyway," Osprey said. She reached out and gently ran a servo along Jack's face; Jack looked at her, then raised an eyebrow as he felt a familiar sensation. "You share a guardian bond with Tetra, don't you?" he asked as she removed her servo from his face. "Yes, Tetra is my Sparkling; I will tell you the story of how I found her someday, but for now we need to focus on priorities."

"Now that is a trick I didn't know you could do," said a voice from her left; Michelle looked at the speaker and smiled, "I didn't know I could do it until after I woke up from stasis on Cybertron, Wheeljack. Anyway, what's this I heard about Predacon clones and Shockwave? Last I knew, he was hidden in one of his labs on Cybertron doing Primus only knows what."

Jack sighed, "That's what he was working on; cloning Predacons. First on Cybertron and more recently here on Earth. The experiments were successful, insofar as he managed to clone one that is still alive. His most recent batch was destroyed, though we have reason to believe Megatron had a hand in planning that; why he did so is up for debate." Grunt shook his head, "That is not logical at all; why go through the effort of cloning them just to destroy them?" "I'd agree with you, Grunt, but there must be something that we don't know about the Predacon that's left that would have changed Megatron's mind about having so many around," Michelle stated, looking at Optimus Prime. Optimus looked at her and said, "Osprey, our historical view of the Predacons was that they were much like your world's "mythical" creatures, such as Dragons; we even found evidence that at least some of your world's mythology was based on the presence of Predacons cloned by Shockwave and sent here long ago. However, this view is no longer viable since we discovered a Predacon that can transform as we do."

Osprey looked at her companions in shock; Buster and Grunt were shifting uncomfortably at the news, and she heard herself say in a multi-toned voice, "that changes things, all right." Jack looked at her and asked," Osprey, why is your voice different all of a sudden?" Osprey smiled at Jack, Miko and Raf and said, "Do you remember what I said the last time I was with you?" Jack nodded and said, "you said there was more you would like to tell us, but didn't want to overload us." Miko nodded and started to speak, but Raf beat her to it; "this has to do with your link to the modified aircraft, doesn't it?" "Yes Raf," Osprey said, feeling the others beginning to synchronize with her. "Optimus, about the transforming Predacon. If one Predacon was capable of it, then it's likely all of them would be; even if Shockwave was able to install a "loyalty" subroutine in their cyber nucleic acid matrix, the possibility of them becoming uncontrollable for even a short time would be unacceptable for Megatron. It would be even worse if the one leading them were to figure out how to get them to follow his orders instead of those given by Megatron, if he thought those orders to be "beneath them"."

Wheeljack shook his helm and said, "Osprey, these things aren't like what we fought back on Cybertron; if not for Optimus, neither Ultra Magnus or I would be here now. The one Predacon nearly destroyed us." "Wheeljack, I understand that; this is why I agree that Megatron was involved, at least indirectly in this. What we need to figure out is a way to convince the remaining Predacon that we didn't deliberately kill the others, but that Megatron tricked us into it,"Michelle said.

(Author's note: Yes, this one is in third person view, rather than the first person view of The Twenty-Seven: Jack. It is, however, consistent with the viewpoint of Part One, so please forgive the minor perspective shifts between story lines; I will try to keep chapters of stories consistent.)


	3. Predaking

Grey Areas Part Three

A Transformers Prime Fan Fiction

By daywalker03

Predaking

"Just get it over with; it's not like I could ever live with myself knowing the role I played in humankind's extinction. But if you want to avenge your cohorts, don't stop with me; keep avenging all the way to Megatron."

Shocking words; so shocking that he transforms from his beast form to his bipedal one. "What? What do you mean?"

"Your high and might leader WANTED your Predacons exterminated, and simply allowed us to do his dirty work for him."

The words ring in his audio receptors, and he glares at the figure before him; Ratchet, the Autobot medical officer has just made an accusation that, while unsettling, seems to ring true at a much deeper level. He shakes himself and reaches out to lift Ratchet up by his left arm; "Nothing but a false claim to save your own spark," he rumbles, but Ratchet's response shakes him to his very core.

"You consider yourself an intelligent being, don't you?" A pause, then Ratchet continues; "Then rise above your base instincts and analyze the situation." He drops Ratchet, and as the Autobot stands he listens to the words being spoken. "We followed the trail that day in the desperate hope it would lead to an Energon mine; we had no idea we would find Shockwave's laboratory."

"The coincidence barely seems plausible," he stated. "Because it WASN'T a coincidence; the Energon was clearly planted to lure us there, by Megatron."

"Why would my liege wish to destroy us?"

"Having just been on the receiving end of your might, one theory springs to mind; Megatron fears you and any like you."

The Autobot's words leave him cold; he had pledged his life to Megatron's cause, and how was he repaid? Megatron had had his kin murdered by the enemy. The most horrific part of it was that Megatron would no doubt now want to exterminate him, if he didn't already regret having not done so yet. Part of him wanted to follow through with terminating the Autobot as Megatron expected, but another felt that such an act would doom innocents, and he could not allow that; the thought of his slain kin would not allow him to stand by and watch it happen again. He growls low, then turns away from the Autobot; he no longer cares what Ratchet does, so long as Megatron betrayal of his trust evens the score.

Ratchet watches as the massive Predacon stalks away, more than slightly shocked that his armor and protoform are still basically intact; he then turns to take advantage of this unexpected development. He follows the trail of carnage left in the Predacon's wake until he finds a control console. "Autobot Base, this is Ratchet, Can anyone hear me?"

/*Loud and clear, old friend*/ Optimus answers, clearly glad to hear his medical officer alive and well.

"Listen to me; Megatron has manager to rebuild the Omega Lock onboard his warship. I have deactivated the Decepticon shielding system; you should be able to get a fix on my coordinates. Optimus, you must hurry; Megatron is preparing to cyberform Earth as we speak."

/*Ratchet. */ Optimus receives no response. /*Autobots, lock onto those coordinates and prepare to storm the warship.*/


End file.
